The last time we really talked about Jada Pinkett-Smith is when she admitted her romantic entanglement with August Alsina to Will Smith on Red Table Talk. It was definitely a teachable moment and many people had their assumptions about the Smith’s relationship confirmed. I am sure there have been other things to come out about Jada since then, but nothing has been as notable as that conversation with Will. Until now, depending on comfortable you are with women talking about their vaginas. In a new episode of Red Table Talk, Jada, Willow, and Gammy Adrienne introduce their audience to vaginal steaming. (More on that below.) They’re then joined by author Queen Afua at the Red Table to talk about personal wellness and vaginal health. Below are a few more details via Hollywood Life:
The blonde said it felt “like a little tingle, tingle” during the June 9 episode of the Facebook Watch show, which featured an interview with wellness coach and author Queen Afua.
But, before the mother, daughter and grandma chatted with their guest, they each donned a lilac robe to test out the Goddess Detox vaginal steaming set. Despite saying “Jesus” when Jada told her that they were going to do the process on camera, Adrienne, 67, gamely sat on the bowl filled with hot water and herb teabags.
“This is real queen throne action right here,” Jada said during the steaming session… “This is what I love. Steaming is an ancient practice, which originated in Asia and Africa and it was originally used to cleanse yourself after you finishing menstruating.”
“I’ve read somewhere that vaginal steams are like an aphrodisiac,” she also added. However, the wife and mom said the practice had a deep meaning and that she loved the feeling of “spending time with your vagina to just show it appreciation and care.”
But the actress seemed prepared to face some backlash from Red Table Talk fans as they openly discussed steaming and appreciating their private parts. “I’m telling you right now, I don’t want to hear nothing about this show, it being TMI and all that,” she said. “Because if you can listen to all these little rap artists talk and abuse the vagina you sure as hell can watch women give it honor and praise and spend quality time. So I don’t want to hear it… I don’t really care because we have to change the narrative around the vagina and women have to take it back.”
I had my vagina steamed at the Yoni Day Spa in Oakland and let me tell you it really is an amazing experience. I am loving how Red Table Talk is opening the conversation around women appreciating their damn vaginas. The fact that we have to give our vaginas pet names (flower, vajajay, hooha) is already problematic. I am all for Jada and her family broaching such an important conversation not just around female bonding but around reproductive health and pleasure. Our vaginas are not made just for pushing out babies. However there have not been any significant medical studies that prove that vaginal steaming is helpful or harmful. I personally enjoyed it, it was very relaxing. Our vaginas have their own cleansing process so steaming them is unnecessary and can be dangerous if the steam is too hot. For me it was more about bonding with my sister friends and relaxing.
I have also read portions of Queen Afua’s book, Sacred Woman: A Guide to Healing the Feminine Body, Mind, and Spirit. I love her openness about women viewing their vaginas and sexual pleasure as sacred. She does go into some detail about women’s reproductive health but many of her claims have not been medically verified. Is it TMI to talk about our vaginas? I don’t think so. I believe it is a necessary conversation that we should get comfortable with having. I am here for extensive conversations where women learn from each other about taking care of our bodies, especially our private parts. I am definitely going to watch this episode just to encourage black and brown women in particular to have open discussions about their sexual organs and vajajays.
“If your vagina could speak what would she say?” Mine would say ‘I’m fed up’…but then my mouth also says that so I think we’re perfectly aligned.
Talk to them all you want, but please don’t steam your vaginas!
Yeah, I’m all about self-love, but are any OB/GYNs on board with this?
Most Ob-Gyns are not ok with steaming your vadge. I follow Dr Jen Gunter on twitter, she is an Ob-Gyn who spends time discussing these various dangerous wellness trends but also fights the bodily shame society has ingrained in us about our genitalia. She’s great, highly recommend following!
Dr. Gunter is great, I especially like how she repeatedly calls out Goop for all the ridiculous crap they promote, some of it dangerous or unhealthy.
I’m almost certain that steaming my vagina would give me a yeast infection.
Speaking of vagina steamers, I watched one episode of Goop Lab on Netflix because it had good reviews (episode 3, the pleasure is ours). In it they profile the legendary sex therapist Betty Dodson who sadly passed last year. Betty said you should call it a vulva, not a vagina. And they show lots of them… It was a very interesting episode, highly recommend (though Goopy is still annoying)
I dislike Goop too but this episode sounds quite interesting. I’m gonna check it out. Thanks for the recommendation ^_^
Yeah I also couldn’t get through much of Goop Lab, but the proper term for female genitalia IS vulva. The vulva contains the vagina, labia, clitoris, urethra, etc.
Pet peeve, isn’t what gets steamed really just the vulva? I mean unless part of what they are sitting on there is a speculum stretching everything open way up in?
No, the steam really gets in there because of the way you squat. Anyway, vaginal steaming has always been practiced in the Caribbean, it’s usually done after a woman gives birth. It’s supposed to help with not only the cleanse, but with passing of any clots.
I am a yogi who can deeply squat and there is no positioning of my body that opens my vagina!
yes. the vagina is not an open tube that steam can flow into. So either they are steaming their VULVAS, they are stretched open with a speculum, or a steam wand is inserted into the vagina.
No one said it was a steady stream of steam, also, since steam is basically air, it isn’t impossible for some of it it get inside. Regardless, if you’ve done it, IYKYK.
I already have to trim my pubes because it gets too hot down there.
No way I’m steaming my vulva, thank you very much though.
Same here! It’s summer in Florida and every day my vagina feels like it’s getting a steam already. I like to stand over those air conditioning vents that are on the floor — more of a cooling off and airing out then, lol!
I’m perfectly fine with nicknames. I have nicknames for everything, always have, always will. And like my ears, medical professionals have been adamant about my particular holes and their safety. So in the same vein as vaccines, masks, et al, I’ll continue to listen to the medical professionals.
Honestly, this has been done in cultures for hundreds of years. Is it recommended by western medicine? No. But up until very recently acupressure, acupuncture and other various forms of traditional medicine were also seen as useless too. Now many of these techniques are used in conjunction with western medicine for fertility and addiction issues. There is still so much to learn about the human body.
I’m in the camp of: If it works for you go for it. I’m not going to shame them for practicing cultural beliefs that don’t hurt anyone.
I would not steam my vagina but I’m happy they make this whole thing of wellness/taking care of our genitalia a trend. Maybe this RT episode was a bit TMI but at the end of the day I think it’s a positive approach to the subject.
Happy to mainstream talk of vulvas and vaginas, but very much opposed to any industry that suggests that we need to do anything special to said parts, especially any industry that even remotely implies that we need something special to clean the vulva or vagina. While this does come across as mostly self-care and I appreciate the careful wording of the article above, the procedure itself softly implies that special cleaning is necessary, and enough young girls and young women are indoctrinated with the need to shave/wax, douche, freshen-up, etc.
This is a good point. I don’t want to step on any cultural beliefs, as my understanding is that some cultures have been practicing this for a long time and that is their right. But modern society has never missed an opportunity to tell women that their bodies are dirty, gross, and unhygienic, which is not accurate and steeped in misogyny. I feel like this is a delicate area (no pun intended) that can easily be abused (looking at you, Goop).
Bingo, Josephine. That’s exactly my issue.
I am a big fan of Eastern medicine and have been for about 30 years, when I studied it in college. Even then, there were western medical establishments who were practicing a combination of western and eastern, depending on what made sense for different ailments. I’m all for keeping an open mind at different cultural practices and techniques. Where I am NOT comfortable is this idea that a woman’s body in its natural state is “unclean” or dirty.
Women steamed their vaginas because their culture (men) told/tells them that menstruation was/is dirty and that they were/are dirty. They had/have to go through rituals to be deemed acceptable to men. This still happens around the world. These rituals and the surrounding practices kill women.
This may be fun or feel empowering, but there are women in this world right now living in filthy huts or outside, unable to go to school or even enter their own homes because they are “unclean”. Menstruation huts remain a thing, and women sleep outdoors in the elements if they can’t access a hut.
In some cultures, women are forced into these huts for childbirth because they are “unclean”. The practice of steaming is part of this.
This is cosplaying one of the worst injustices to women in the history of humanity and it is sickening. The idea that we’re basically unclean makes us easy to abuse and easy to deny us basic rights.
This is part of why women are denied a basic education in parts of the world and are condemned to being used as baby-making machines and nothing more.
Women frequently die because of these practices.
But yeah. Let’s make a TV show about it and laugh and have fun.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/12/17/787808530/menstrual-huts-are-illegal-in-nepal-so-why-are-women-still-dying-in-them
Menstrual huts are not the same as a vaginal steam.
THIS!! It might be an ancient tradition but so is clítoris ablation. Honestly, not everything that is ancient or a tradition is good, valuable or needs to be preserved.
I agree with you. I remember when I was younger my mom telling me when females are on their period they shouldn’t go to Temple because they are seen as unclean. Ummm excuse me? God made women this way ! It’s natural ! It’s utter bullsh*t ! So how do men clean their parts? I mean those are probably dirty too as they entire (in some cases) many vaginas and even anuses…so yeah ok there.
I’ve always wanted to try it but I have an IUD And steaming can negatively interfere with that form of birth control.
I didn’t know that, thanks!
This is such hotep bullshit lmao
stop steaming your “yonis” and help the black community with your money, you good for nothing scientologists
Lol is concise and correct!